weapons. Some usable transport. But anything that had not been destroyed
had been looted.
Obi-Wan stopped. Not looted, he suddenly realized. The village had not
been looted. It did not bear the scars. It had undergone a siege. That he
could tell. But the valuables hadn't been stolen. They had been removed.
He retraced his steps. He combed through the buildings, now knowing
exactly what he was looking for. It didn't take him long. He found the
first tunnel opening in the closet of a prosperous house that was almost
empty of furnishings. The opening was set into the floor of patterned wood
panels. If he hadn't been looking for the seam, he would have stepped right
over it. It was cleverly concealed in the design on the wood.
He lowered himself down into the tunnel. It had been clumsily dug, but
it was reinforced well with plastoid tubing. He kept his bearings as he
wandered through the underground walkways. There were several exits. One
was in the back of the school. One in the clinic. And one opened out deep
in the forest, on the other side of the Haariden camp. They were so close
that Obi-Wan could clearly see the weariness in one soldier's face as he
leaned over to unroll his bedding on the forest floor.
Obi-Wan returned to the others and beckoned to Soara. He explained
what he had found.
"Should we evacuate now?" Soara asked, glancing at Darra. "We'll be
taking a great risk if we try to sneak by the Haariden camp."
"Too great a risk, I fear," Obi-Wan said. "If it were just the four of
us, it would be one thing. But we can't count on the scientists. They've
been on the run for weeks. They're worn out. I think we need to strike an
offense first. Now. They are settling down to sleep. It's the best time. If
we can knock out their tracking devices and some weaponry, we'll be ahead."
Soara nodded. "You and I must go. We should leave Anakin here in case.
"
Obi-Wan nodded. He was glad Soara didn't hold Anakin's rash action
during the battle against him.
But when he told his Padawan their plan, Anakin seemed crestfallen at
not being included in the attack.
Obi-Wan felt exasperated. Anakin's reaction seemed that of a boy,
anxious to be in on the action. It wasn't worthy of his Padawan. "This is
important," he told him. "You need to protect the scientists and Darra.
Soara and I won't be long."
"But you might need me," Anakin said. "It's a large patrol."
"We have surprise on our side. No, Padawan. You must remain here."
"I would not fail you this time," Anakin promised.
Obi-Wan saw it then, the hunger on Anakin's face. It was not a hunger
for action. It was the need to redeem himself.
Obi-Wan spoke gently. "The best thing you can do for Darra is remain
here to protect her."
Anakin looked down, struggling to accept the order. "As you wish,
Master."
"You must keep your focus, young Padawan," Obi-Wan murmured, so that
the others wouldn't overhear. "This is not a judgment on you. This is the
best way to proceed."
Anakin nodded, keeping his eyes down. "All right," he muttered.
Obi-Wan hesitated. Now he could feel the shame behind Anakin's
questions. His Padawan's feelings ran deep. His shame was filling him now,
and he thought that only action could relieve it. He was wrong, but Obi-Wan
would need time to explain why this was so.
He knew that his Padawan needed him. Yet he had to go. He struggled
for words to leave behind, but he had none. The only thing left to do was
walk away.
CHAPTER FOUR,
Anakin watched his Master walk away from him. There was no doubt or
hesitation in how Obi-Wan moved. Ever. Anakin wanted to move through his
own life with the same assurance. Yet time and again he found himself
confronting miscalculation and error. Time and again he moved when he
shouldn't have moved, said what he shouldn't have said, or turned when he
should have stayed still.
It was times like this when his connection to the Force felt like a
burden more than a gift. It pulsed around him so strongly and he could feel
it so easily that he used it to act instead of to strategize. Obi-Wan had
told him the Force must be used for caution and control as well as action.
So far he had not learned that lesson. It was because he did not understand
it. During the battle he had seen which way the blaster fire would come. He
had exactly determined its movement and speed. But he had not factored in
the notion that Darra would be moving, too.
If it had been a Temple exercise, it wouldn't have mattered. Darra
would have perhaps received a bruise at most. She would have landed lightly
on her feet, the way she always did, and turned to him with a quick retort
and a smile. Instead, she was wounded and in shock.
Nothing had gone right on this planet, Anakin thought, almost angry
now. He felt lost in a dark world, spinning in a system he did not know.
The scientists had rolled themselves into thermal blankets and were
trying to catch a few hours of sleep in the corner. Through the half-
demolished roof above, Anakin could see the cold night sky. The
constellations were not familiar to him and made him feel even farther away
from home.
He crossed the room and crouched by Darra. Her eyelashes cast shadows
on her pale cheeks. There was a fine sheen of perspiration on her skin. He
watched her breathe in and out.
I'm sorry, he spoke in his mind.
He felt a presence by his shoulder. The scientist TicVerdun looked
down at Darra. "It is hard to see a friend this way, I know."
"Yes," Anakin said. He did not want to discuss his feelings with this
stranger.
"Yesterday I would have said that Jedi are used to pain and suffering
and thus can bear it better than we do," Tic Verdun continued. "Today I
find I would be wrong. You seem to feel it more."
"Not more," Anakin said. "It's just that we put ourselves in the way
of danger. It is our path. We see one another's strength. We see one
another at our best. So we know exactly how much we lose when one of us
goes down. And we feel... if only we could have been the one to fall."
He felt Tic Verdun's eyes on him. "I saw that you wanted to go with
your Master and Soara Antana. If you wish to follow them, I will take
responsibility for Darra Thel-Tanis and the rest of us. The others are
tired. I am still strong."
Anakin was impressed. No wonder Tic Verdun had been the group's scout.
He had great courage.
Anakin shook his head. "I can't go. But thank you." He turned away
again and sat down next to Darra. He didn't want to be rude, but he wasn't
in the mood to talk.
But Tic Verdun didn't get the hint. He sat down, too. "The Force," he
said. "You have to see how it would be intriguing to a scientist. Something
that cannot be seen, cannot be measured. And it can only be felt by a
select few. Here I am with someone who can feel it and use it. I saw it
happen just a short while ago. Can you explain how it works to me? Can you
tell me anything at
all?" He added hastily, "Or is it forbidden to speak of
it?"
"It is not forbidden," Anakin said. "But it is not done."
Tic wrapped his arms around his knees. "I see."
Now Anakin was afraid he'd been rude. "It is hard to talk about it. It
is something I can feel around me. Something I can gather and tap into,
like a deep well. It sustains me and frustrates me - "
"Frustrates you?" Tic's dark eyes were alive, curious. Anakin leaned
back against the cold stone wall. He felt very tired. "Sometimes. It is so
vast..."
"That you feel small." Tic gave a sad smile. "I study the galaxy. I
know how that feels. How simple it is, and yet how intricate and complex.
It is all around you and you are at the center of it, yet you are nothing
compared to it."
"Yes," Anakin said. Tic had put into words what he had been feeling.
No one had ever done that before. Not even Obi-Wan. Sometimes the Force
made him feel... lonely.
"And you will never truly understand it," Tic added softly, "yet you
will spend your life trying. And sometimes you ask yourself, is it worth
it? Is it foolish of you to devote yourself to trying to know the
unknowable?" He laughed. "All I know is, it can't be wise."
"Wisdom is not what we seek," Anakin said, repeating a Jedi saying.
"Wisdom can only be found."
Tic shook his head, grinning. "Whatever that means. And I thought the
scientific institute was hard."
When Tic smiled, Anakin realized that he was younger than he'd
thought. He wasn't much older than Obi-Wan. Tic had made him feel better,
and he didn't think anyone was capable of that.
Suddenly the sound of explosions split the air. The scientists all
jumped to their feet, fear on their faces. Darra stirred but did not wake.
"What is it?" Reug Yucon whispered the words harshly.
Anakin heard the sound of alarmed voices from the Haariden camp. Soara
and Obi-Wan had begun their attack. Every muscle seemed to contract with
the effort of staying still. He wanted so badly to go.
"Should we leave?" Joveh D'a Alin asked anxiously. "We could be
trapped here."
"No," Anakin said. "We'll wait here."
Waiting was the hardest thing. Like him, the scientists wanted to
move. But they wanted to run from the source of the explosions. He wanted
to run toward them.
"We are lucky to have you with us," Tic said quietly. A small
consolation, Anakin thought. But he'd take it.
CHAPTER FIVE
If any of the Haaridens were trying to grab some sleep, they were now
disappointed. The patrol troops had been so certain that they were safe
that they hadn't bothered to post guards. It was easy for Obi-Wan and Soara
to sneak into the camp. The Haaridens had left the small arms jumbled
together in a heap. Soara and Obi-Wan easily jammed the flechette launchers
and the missile tube, and pocketed all the thermal detonators.
Then they tossed a detonator into the brush in order to wake everybody
up. While the Haaridens scrambled for their blasters, the only weapons left
to them, the Jedi stood, waiting.
Before the quickest Haariden could shoot, Obi-Wan called, "Think
first. Surrender is your best option." The Haariden captain spoke up, his
blaster leveled at Obi-Wan's chest. "Why should we surrender? We are forty,
and you are only two."
"I can think of one good reason," Obi-Wan said, holding up the thermal
detonators. "We have ten of these. The blast radius is five meters for
each. We can toss these accurately and quickly and demolish this entire
patrol in exactly five seconds."
"You'll blow yourself up," the Haariden captain sneered.
Obi-Wan smiled. "I don't think so."
The next thing the captain knew, Obi-Wan had somersaulted over his
head and landed on his other side. "Maybe I need to remind you," Obi-Wan
said. "We are Jedi."
The other Haariden soldiers looked nervous. They glared at one
another, then at their captain.
"I'm not inclined to find out if they can do it," one soldier
muttered.
"Why should we?" another said.
"This isn't even our fight," the first soldier added. "Why can't we
just return to our unit?" another asked.
The captain eyed the thermal detonator in Soara's hand, her thumb over
the release.
"What happens to us?" he asked.
"We have no quarrel with you," Obi-Wan said. "As long as we have safe
passage to our transport."
The captain paused. Then he slowly lowered his blaster.
Soara and Obi-Wan dropped the thermal detonators back into the pockets
of their tunics.
"What do you mean, it's not your fight?" Soara asked.
"We were paid to split off from our unit and attack you," the captain
said, wiping a weary hand across his forehead.
Soara and Obi-Wan exchanged a glance. "Who paid you?" Soara asked.
The captain looked evasive. "No one we knew. I mean, not a native
Haariden. An outlander."
"His name?"
"He didn't say."
"What did he look like?"
The captain was about to answer, but a blank look came over his face.
He shook his head several times. "Isn't that strange," he said. "I honestly
don't remember."
A pulse began to beat inside Obi-Wan. He gripped the hilt of his
lightsaber.
"What is he to you?" Soara asked. "I would think you would rather have
the Jedi on your side."
The captain gave a sad smile. "The Jedi can't help us. We are
perfectly capable of destroying ourselves. Yes, he gave me his name. It was
Granta Omega."
The name only confirmed what Obi-Wan had already suspected. He had met
Granta Omega before. Omega had hired a group of bounty hunters to hunt him
down, as well as Anakin and another Jedi. Obi-Wan had still not found out
why. He knew that Omega was not a Sith, but he collected Sith artifacts.
Omega was also a void, a person with enough power to appear so neutral
as to fade from the memory of those who had met him. He did not have a
Force-connection, but he had cunning. And for some reason, he despised the
Jedi.
Obi-Wan was not surprised to run into Granta Omega again. But why
here, and why now?
Suddenly the horizon lit up with a dull red glow.
"The battle has resumed," the captain said tiredly. "We should return
to our unit." He hesitated. "Since you have spared our lives, I will also
tell you this - all units have been called to the battle on the other edge
of the forest. You will have no trouble reaching your transport safely. Our
concerns now lie elsewhere." He bowed. "Captain Noq Welflet, at your
service."
He looked at the soldiers, who had dropped back to the ground. Some of
them sat, their heads in their hands. Others looked numbly around.
"My soldiers are exhausted," he said. "I took the credits from Granta
in order to feed and clothe them. I did not want to fight the Jedi. I do
not want to fight at all, actually." He made an attempt at a laugh, but
began to cough. "My lungs are full of smoke and ashes," he murmured.
/> "Why do you continue?" Obi-Wan asked.
Captain Welflet's eyes were red-rimmed above his straggly beard.
"Because I must."
Soara raised a hand to take in the exhausted patrol, the ruined
village, the blackened stumps. "And it's worth all this? Your land ruined,
your people dead?"
The captain sighed. "I only know there is no alternative."
Obi-Wan and Soara headed back to the others. They were both saddened
by their experience on Haariden. There seemed little chance for peace.
They hurried back to the group and told the scientists the good news.
They should reach the transport without incident.
"And the Haariden patrol?" Anakin asked.
"They've gone back to join the war," Obi-Wan said. "They won't bother
us." He would tell Anakin about Granta Omega back at the Temple. Now they
needed to focus on getting off-planet.
Soara and Obi-Wan fashioned a body sling and tied Darra gently against
Obi-Wan's chest. They hiked to the transport, making good time now. The sky
lightened and a pale sun rose as they reached the ship.
The scientists boarded with weary relief. Obi-Wan gently set Darra